Cllinton, Obama Clash over National Security

With the Democratic nomination on the line in Texas, Sen. Hillary Clinton’s campaign is raising the stakes on national security, emphasizing a theme she raised in a major foreign policy speech earlier this week that was stomped on by a farcical ruckus over a Drudge photo of Obama in an ill-fitting turban.

Clinton raised the issue again in Tuesday’s debate in Ohio, asking voters who they want answering the White House phone on a crisis at 3.a.m. and now is repeating that argument in an ad airing in Texas today:

“Your vote will decide who answers that call,” says the new Texas ad. “Whether it’s someone who already knows the world’s leaders, knows the military — someone tested and ready to lead in a dangerous world…Who do you want answering the phone?”

The Obama campaign is countering with an ad featuring retired Gen. Merrill McPeak, a Gulf War veteran who affirms Obama’s arguments about the importance of judgment over experience, saying, “The old Washington hands have let us down.”

President Bush’s attacks yesterday, in which he warned in a news conference that sitting down with an enemy dictator such as Raul Castro “can send chilling signals to our allies. It can send confusion about our foreign policy. It discourages reformers inside their own country,” were aimed at Obama but dovetail with Clinton’s push.

Clinton’s widely overlooked speech was much harder hitting: “The American people don’t have to guess whether I understand the issues or whether i would need a foreign policy instruction manual to guide me through a crisis or whether I’d have to rely on foreign advisers to introduce me to global affairs,” Clinton said.

The Obama campaign wasted no time responding, putting Gen. McPeak on the phone to say the question is not about answering the phone at 3 a.m., “The question is what do you do after you wake up,” McPeak said. McPeak pointed for a comparison to the evidence produced right now by the two campaigns.

Comparing a grueling presidential campaign to a war, McPeak said on strategy, organization, management, leadership, and other measures, McPeak said Obama shows superior performance in the here and now. Obama himself compared the ad to Republican fear mongering on national security.

Campaign spokesman Howard Wolfson called it “ludicrous” to rule out a discussion of national security. “If we can’t talk about it in an election, when can we talk about it?”

The stakes in Texas are huge for Clinton. She’s trying to tell Texans that they are equally huge for them. Inexperience is Obama’s obvious weakness and all this is only a taste of what’s to come should Obama win the nomination.

Turning the tables, Clinton spokesman Wolfson said it is Obama who has to win Ohio and Texas, as well as Rhode Island and Vermont, to demonstrate that the nomination is decided. “If he can’t put Clinton away here, there’s a problem,” Wolfson said. He predicted that “buyer’s remorse” may be setting in, and that if Obama doesn’t win all four states, he “has a problem closing the deal with Democrats.”